Radio journalist Yiorgos Trangas has been fined 25,000 euros for calling Angela Merkel the ‘tart of Berlin’ during a live broadcast that resulted in the station he works for being fined 25,000 euroes.
The National Council of Radio and Television (ESR) fined Real FM – the station Trangas works for – for comments made by himself about Angela Markel on two occasions in September and October of last year.
The council said Trangas had abused the Greek language and made obscene characterisations about the German chancellor.
The ESR issued the fine after it received a number of complaints from listeners to Trangas’ show.
On Wednesday morning, a tearful Trangas appeared on the Proino Antenna morning show on Antenna TV, expressing his regret that a fine had been issued. Real FM has the right to appeal the decision.
“At 63, I’m being told that I’m a typical Balkan southerner, who is lazy and a schemer. Really! I’ve been working since I was 16! I’ve worked night and day for a half a century. So why are we told we’re lazy and crooks?”
He added: “The Greek are the Jews of 2012. I respect the Jews for the genocide they underwent in the Second World War. But in any case, I feel distanced from the Aryan race.”
Source: Athens News
